Pennsylvania’s Intrastate Family Support Act deals with support matters that are within the Commonwealth but in different Pennsylvania counties. The act Provides for registration for enforcement or modification, full faith and credit is given from county to county. Simplified by PACSES, since all monies paid within the Commonwealth support network are recorded for all counties to access.  Intrastate support in Pa is referenced in several different places in Pennsylvania law.

Pa.R.C.P. , Rule 19101.2 (Support Actions) provides in pertinent part as follows:
Venue. Transfer of Action.
(a) An action may be brought in
(1) the county in which the defendant resides, or
(2) the county in which the defendant is regularly employed, or
(3) the county in which the plaintiff resides and that county is the county in which the last marital       domicile was located and in which the plaintiff has continued to reside.
(4) the county in which the child resides if the relief sought includes child support.

The Intrastate Family Support Act, 23 Pa.C.S.A. §8305 provides as follows:
Inappropriate tribunal.  If a petition, complaint or comparable pleading is received by an inappropriate tribunal, it shall forward the pleading and accompanying documents to an appropriate tribunal and notify the petitioner by first class mail where and when the pleading was sent.

Most often, IFSA is utilized when the obligor is self-employed and a non-resident of the Plaintiff’s County, or venue is more appropriate in another county. Obligee (the person getting support) files a complaint as in a local case, and the complaint is transmitted to the responding tribunal. Parties may participate in the proceedings by telephone, and the physical presence of the petitioner is not required. If the case is commenced in the Plaintiff’s County, but enforcement of the order becomes problematic because of the obligor’s non-residence locally, the case will usually be registered for enforcement in the appropriate location. Orders are not transferred without prior consultation with the obligee. §8312 provides tribunals assist one another in obtaining discovery or to compel an individual over whom it has jurisdiction to respond to a discovery request. §8313 provides that if the obligee prevails in a registration request, the court may assess the obligor for reasonable attorney fees, costs, and necessary travel incurred by the obligee and the obligee’s witnesses. §8313(c) states a tribunal shall order the payment of costs and attorney fees if it is determined that a hearing was requested primarily for delay; furthermore, a hearing is presumed to have been requested primarily for delay if a registered support order is confirmed or enforced without change.

For information on filing for child support in Pa. click Here.